As was the case with the Handley Page Halifax. The Type 679
or Manchester as it was to become, was A.V. Roe's response to the Air Ministry's
specification B.13/36 requesting designs for a twin-engined bomber.

Avro had, up until the time of submitting its
design, been building the wooden and later tubular steel framed, canvas covered
Anson. And therefore, had very little experience with aircraft made of all metal
and stressed skinned construction. Their design also called for the use of the
newly designed, but as yet unproven, Rolls-Royce 24 cylinder Vulture
engines.

In April 1937, only eight weeks after Avro had
submitted its design proposal. Authorisation was given to proceed with the
construction of two prototype aircraft (L7246 and L7247).

By July 1st 1937, without working having begun on the construction
of the prototypes, an order for 200 Manchester was placed by the Air Ministry
under contract No. 648770/37/C4(c).

However, even with this newly awarded order, construction of the
first prototype aircraft (L7246) was not begun until June 1939. And it would be
July 25th, 1939; almost 21 months after the initial go ahead had been given,
that the aircraft first ventured into the air.

Even with the prototype in the air and flight trails proceeding,
development of the aircraft was far from complete. The Vulture engines continued
to prove unreliable, and in flight ran extremely hot requiring the pilot to
continuously nurse them. Engine bearing failures, caused mainly from lack of oil
circulation, were also causing major problems. And much to the dismay of the
Avro Engineers, it was found that the aircraft was unable to
maintain height when flying on one engine. L4246 having to make emergency
landings in a convenient field or more than one occasion during the trails. The
Air Ministry too, were not helping things, as they continued to revise to
requirements of the aircraft from those originally specified. Although, in most
cases these changes actually deleted requirements from the aircraft, most of
these initial requirements were already built into the aircraft and could not be
easily "designed out" again.

Take-off's were also found to be longer than excepted and this
problem was only corrected by the wing span again being increased from 82'-2"
(25.04 m) to 90'-1" (27.46 m). A lack of directional stability, which indicated
that the area of the tail fins was insufficient, was also discovered. And this
problem was only corrected only after the entire tail fin assembly had been
redesigned and the tail span increased.

Although, by no means problem free and with the reliability of its
engines and hydraulic systems still very much in question. Avro
Manchester Mk.I's finally entered service on November 6th, 1940 with when the
recently reformed No. 207 Squadron, RAF stationed at Waddington. However, it
would not be until the night of February 24/25, 1941 that the squadron would fly
the Manchester on its first operational sorties against Brest.

In a strange twist of fate, even before the Manchester made its
operational debut, it was already an obsolete and unwanted airframe. As far back
as November 1940 the Air Ministry has decided to abandon the Manchester. But is
obsolescence was made solely by the first flight of a totally redesigned
Manchester.

This new design, which first flew on January 9th, 1941 and was
initially designated Manchester Mk.III. Included Roy Chadwicks' decision to
increase the main wing span to 102'-0" (31.09 m) and replace the troubled
Vultures with four Rolls-Royce Merlin's.

As tests of this new design progressed and
favorable results began to come in. Avro
decided to change the name of aircraft to the Lancaster. Their hope being that
by doing so, the Manchester's bad name amongst Air Ministry and the air crews
who flew it. Would pass into history and would allow this new and promising
aircraft to begin is service life with a clean slate.

Manchester's were to continue in service with the RAF until June
24, 1942, when the last squadron finally traded their aircraft in for a newer
type. The aircraft was then relegated to training purposes, where they remained
for a short period. Finally being totally removed from the RAF's requirements
before the war's end.

Of the 200 airframes completed as true Manchester's and issued to
front line RAF squadron's. A total 77 aircraft were lost on operations and an
additional 20 were also lost in various accidents with those squadron's. A
further 24 were lost during training flights with non-operational units, such as
Conversion Flights. Combined losses therefore, were 121 or 60.50 percent of the
original 200 aircraft. From those losses, 33 were directly due to engine
failures - 12 on the squadron's, 21 on the training units. A further 28 aircraft
lost during operations, were also thought to have been caused due to engine
failure. But since the airframes and engines could not be examined there are
classified as "Probably Lost Due To Enemy Action"